Overseas students in Hefei, East China's Anhui Province learn how to weigh traditional Chinese medicine on Monday in a campaign to mark the World Traditional Medicine Day. Photo: VCG

 Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been proved effective in preventing and treating COVID-19 and has been exported to foreign countries such as Italy and the Netherlands. Amid the COVID-19 epidemic outbreak around the world, the culture of traditional Chinese medicine has come into focus.

Chinese experience shows that TCM can help control the virus that causes COVID-19, especially when it comes to patients in the early and middle stages of infection,and some Chinese medicine has been included in the seventh treatment guidelines for the virus in China

TCM does not kill the virus directly, but adjusts the body so that there is no suitable environment for the virus to live, Liu Qingquan, expert of China's Central Government Guidance Group, told the People's Daily.

After 750 boxes of traditional Chinese medicine exported to the Netherlands and Italy proved effective locally, an additional batch of 5,000 boxes have been scheduled to be exported to these two countries, the China News Service reported.

This shows that foreign countries are recognizing the effectiveness of TCM.

Amid the medicine joining in the battle against COVID-19, a Chinese TCM company in South China's Guangdong Province is cooperating with a fashion company to bring more fashionable TCM products to people's life and popularize TCM culture.

According to a report of The Beijing News, the companies are exploring how to combine fashionable clothing, accessories and other products with traditional medicine. 

The report said that a series of daily necessity products themed around health and environmental conservation such as face masks, perfume satchels and soaps containing herbal ingredients will be further developed, and some TCM cultural lessons will be launched to provide people with a healthy lifestyle.

They are not the only ones trying to bring tradition into the modern world.

Some clothing and skin care products using traditional Chinese herbs are being sold on China's e-commerce platforms, becoming favorites among consumers.

Herbs such as cassia seed and wolfberry, which are said to help improve one's eyesight, have been used to produce a type of sleep mask. Some consumers commented in reviews that wearing the mask while sleeping has relieved their eye fatigue caused by reading and working throughout the day.

"Our factory is producing Cheongsimhwan (Lit: clear mind pill), which has been included in the treatment guidelines for COVID-19 issued by the National Health Commission," an employee of a TCM factory in North China's Shanxi Province surnamed Wang told the Global Times on Monday. 

"The medicine was donated to Wuhan when the epidemic was in  its most serious period as it has an obvious effect on fevers."

He added that traditional herbs have many other benefits besides helping fight the epidemic. 

"For example, Cheongsimhwan can relieve inflammation and is good for one's skin in the right dosage. We are researching and developing new products all the time."